


Looking for treasure (in the things that you threw)

by Lopsided_Nebula



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Found Family Dynamics, Gen, I was inspired by acidulication's art and a lot of stardew valley, M/M, Mystery, Primary POV is Kon for now, Tim hasn't met a problem he doesn't like, alternate title:, and is the only one with a single bit of common sense around here, but only sorta cause i don't know if i know how to write a mystery, cassie plays soccer, does it count if they're all already high school age?, farm au, gay farm scooby-doo on crack, i have like a third of a plan, its fine, no capes AU, technically a highschool au too??, they all have trauma if we're being honest, this in itself is a problem, tim has trauma, twice over when the batfam shows up eventually, whats new
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24871660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lopsided_Nebula/pseuds/Lopsided_Nebula
Summary: Kon honestly wanted nothing more than to tell Lex Luther to fuck off. That's how it starts. He takes no responsibility for everything that came after. No, he's pretty sure that's Tim's fault. Maybe Bart's. Definitely not Cassie's though.The core4 on a farm, doing good and causing mayhem. Maybe not in that order.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, I haven't really planned that far ahead, Probably - Relationship, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 21
Kudos: 66





	1. Locational Uncertainties

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This work is inspired by the incredible art of @acidulication on Tumblr. They also were very important to the writing process in that I'd send them bits I wrote at like 2 in the morning and they'd get very excited. I do not think I would have gotten this far with this story without them. 
> 
> I have never actually read a single comic with the core4 in it. I don't know when or if I will in the future. This does not change the fact that I love them. 
> 
> The title is from We Are Golden by MIKA.
> 
> Please enjoy!

*ring ring* 

*ring ring*

*ring r-*

"Connor Kent. What the actual hell."

Kon winced, no fake middle name. Cassie was pissed.

"It's serious I promise."

Cassie made a 'hmn' noise and was silent otherwise, not exactly encouraging, but indicative that she was willing to hear more at the very least.

"The Luther deal. It's happening."

Cassie sighed, still clearly frustrated but hopefully less mad than she had been moments ago.

"What do you mean it's happening?"

"I just got home. Ma told me that she had heard some cars head up to the old Draper farm. No one goes up there. No one would unless they were finally selling it. They've already been here for an hour or two. We have to move fast."

Kon glanced down the valley, like he would somehow be able to see the contractors and business people from here.

"Kon…"

Shit. Cassie sounded upset now. Nice job Kent. If he told her her cat died or something next he could get the full range of negative emotions in one go.

"You can't come."

"Tryouts start in 10 minutes. I. Kon I can't dip out right now. Coach Petersons will never let me show my face again."

Kon sighed. He knew how much this meant to Cassie. It was just..

"Okay. I.. I'll figure something out. You just worry about kicking ass."

Cassie scoffed.

"I always kick ass."

She paused.

"I'lll try to get an early try out slot. As soon as I finish, I'll head right over."

Kon felt a breath sorta push itself out of him, like someone had snapped a giant rubber band around his waist.

"Thanks Cassie. I've got the signs we made in the bed of my truck. I'm gonna head over now, see if anyone else shows up. Catch up when you can."

Cassie laughed, maybe a bit more unhinged than normal. Dang, she was really worried about those tryouts.

"Sounds good. I've gotta go make sure I didn't miss my name. Good luck yelling at Luther's lackeys."

"Hey!” Kon exclaimed in mock offense. “It’s like Ma says, ‘A little rabble rousing is good for the soul’."

Cassie laughed again, a sharp blast of a thing, but a bit steadier than before. He hoped that meant she was calming down. His joke hadn’t really been that good. Or an actual joke now that he thought about it. Ma got up to some wild stuff in the seventies.

"Hey Cassie,"

"Mm?"

She sounded distracted, probably listening for her name. 

"You're gonna do great."

".. Thanks Kon."

A tinny alarm blared out, blending in with the other background noise.

"Shit, I really gotta go, bye Kon."

Cassie hung up before he could respond in kind.

Kon spared a glance at his messages, no one had responded yet. He didn't have time to wait for anyone else. Either they would show up or they wouldn't. 

He grabbed his keys and his favorite jacket, more out of habit than need, before he made sure to say bye to Ma and Pa.

The old truck rattled to life and he was off. 

* * *

Kon didn’t like yelling. Really. He didn’t. It was just hard to remember that when faced with smug assholes like the one currently in front of him.

He had arrived at the Draper Farm, self righteous and confused by the single car - a dinged up old white corolla- parked out front. Had he missed everyone, Was he already too late, Kon had wondered. Would he have to text everyone and tell them to not even bother?

It might be easier that way, he mused, looking out at the old farmland and the empty dirt road he had just driven down, if he did that there would be an actual reason no one was coming. 

It was at this point that he met the owner of the corolla. 

His first thought had been that someone had actually shown up in response to his message he sent out. His second thought was that he had no idea who this dude was. 

No, sorry. That was a lie. His first thought was something along the lines of ‘oh holy mother of cow shit and E.T. there is a _person_ behind me _-how-_ fuck that was scary’. Roughly. The other thoughts followed shortly after that.

What followed after that was the guy opening his mouth to say “What are you doing on my farm?”

That was when everything went downhill. 

Kon didn’t really bother trying to hold onto why he didn’t like yelling at that point.

* * *

"Okay so what, you're just going to sell it? Just like that?"

"Well I.."

They had been arguing for several minutes at this point. Kon didn’t really remember how it had escalated. 

"Just because it's messy and not perfect you dont think it's worth the effort so you're just going to foist it off onto somebody else? Is it worth nothing to you?"

Hmm. Kon… may have said a little too much there. Whoops. Whatever. So what if he’s skipped a few steps in the ‘logical progression of thoughts’, he has more important things happening right now.

"No. No, I. It matters."

Kon flings his arms out, so incredibly done with everything in the world right now. This is not what he had been expecting out of today on at least three separate levels -possibly four- and he was feeling mildly out of his depth. Mildly, because the feeling was chump change compared to the intensely self-righteous anger he was experiencing alongside it.

"Then why are you trying so hard to get rid of it?"

The guy frowns. And wow, Kon was realizing that they were young actually? And kinda small. Honestly, looking at them Kon could buy the guy being anywhere between 14 and 19. Was this the actual owner or their kid? 

"I, I need to get home. I have responsibilities."

"Like what?" Kon spits back. Uncharitable, and pissed off. Ma would not let him hear the end of it if she was here. “What do you need to get back to so fucking badly anyway?”

The guy flounders

"Like. I. I um. Oh." The guy slumped, a bit like a loose puppet. He wasn't that big to begin with but he managed to shrink in on himself even more somehow, folding himself into his oversized jacket. "I guess. I don't?"

Kon felt a little bad now, the guy sorta looked like he was going to start crying or something Or like he was trying really hard to pretend he wasn’t about to start crying. Or like an ac had fallen on his head. That's a thing that happens when you live in big cities right? This guy sounded like he was from the city. Certainly wasn’t from around here. People pushing ac units out of apartments into the crowds below, he was sure he had seen it somewhere. 

Jeeze, what was he even doing?

"I have nothing to go back to."

Okay, now Kon felt like a major asshole.

The guy gripped the edges of his jacket-sleeves and held himself very still. His bottom lip quivered a little before he bit into it, presumably to stop it from doing so. He wasn’t looking at Kon anymore either, it didn’t feel like that last statement had so much been directed at him as it had been pulled out of his mouth forcefully, to sit in the open air like a rotten egg, or a really bad fart.

It looked like the kid was inches from a panic attack or something. Fuck. 

This really wasn't his day, was it?

"I'm sure that's not. I'm -what's your name?"

"Tim."

"Okay, Tim. Nice to meet you. I’m Conner” Kon winced. It was probably a bit late for that at this point. “I want you to breathe with me if that's cool, yeah? I. Shit, that's what you're supposed to do I think."

Tim let out a wet chuckle, to Kon's horror.

"Pleasedontcry"

He was definitely fucking this up.

"Tim. I don't know your life, but I'm sure you've got at least something going on in it.” Hmm. Yes. Nice going, Kent. I’m sure this guy is very comforted right now. “Sell your farm. Don’t listen to me, I'm an asshole who yelled at you and made you cry."

Tim laughed again. This time more genuine.

"So do I or don't I listen to you?"

Kon mock scowled. Tim’s voice was still hiccuping a little to the hitches in his breath.

"Okay smartass. Do whatever the fuck you like. I literally have no say."

“Well, if you’re giving me permission.”

Kon snorted. Tim flashed a quick look up at him with a rather proud smile. 

“Do you man, but I’m gonna sit and catch my breath, I think.”

Kon found an overgrown strip of grass at the edge of the dirt road and did just that. Tim eyed him consideringly and followed suit. His breathing was still kinda uneven. 

They were facing the direction of the farmhouse. 

Tim broke the momentary silence.

“I’m- I do have a home to go back to. I just can’t right now.”

He was twisting his hands a bit now, seeming anxious to get Kon to understand.

Kon nodded.

“Okay. No matter if you do or don’t it was a pretty assholish thing for me to say.”

Tim tilted his head slightly towards him, presumably in agreement.

“Though I gotta ask, why can’t you go home?”

Kon realized after he spoke that he might be overstepping a bit. He was still curious though.

Tim didn’t seem too offended. He turned his head to be facing Kon a bit more, considering. It seemed like this guy spent a lot of his time thinking. He turned back.

“I’m avoiding some people I put in jail.”

Kon slid a look at Tim. He was staring ahead, blank faced. His lip twitched. Kon snorted again.

“What’d’ya put them in jail for then, supersleuth?”

Tim hummed, obviously struggling to keep a straight face.

“Organized crime, definitely.”

Kon shook his head, amused. 

“If you didn’t want to say why, ‘fuck off’ usually gets the point across pretty well. I get when something’s none of my business.”

Tim leaned back, tilting his head so the sun fell across his face, casting shadows across the bridge of his nose, the lines of the light twitching with his smirking mouth.

“Where’s the fun in that though?”

Kon supposed he had a point there.

He paused, Tim looked a bit better and like Lois said, a Kent is as tenacious as they are bullheaded. Clark usually responded by coughing “hypocrite” under his breath really obviously, but that didn’t mean she was wrong. 

...Kon wasn’t thinking about that right now.

All that is to say that Kon found himself unable to drop his temporarily abandoned (and possibly poorly explained) point from earlier.

"Though if you are gonna sell it, at least don’t sell it to Lex-fucking-Luther. There's such a thing as taste."

He leaned back as he spoke, doing his best to sound casual, offhand. Uncaring. It didn’t work very well.

Tim stilled.

"What do you mean, Lex Luther?"

Kon frowned. He couldn’t not know. 

Could he? 

"He's the one who's set up to buy the farm isn’t he? Theres been word that he wants to set up a factory or a Lexmart or something else equally dumb right around here for awhile."

Kon snorted in disgust.

"Big old industrial, capitalistic, hellscape of a thing no matter what it is, that's for sure."

Tim's eyes narrowed.

"And everyone knows about this?"

Kon nodded.

"Oh for sure. He's got signs up all over town. Going on about it for more than a year. Oh, hold on."

He dug out his phone, quickly pulling up a picture of one he had snapped a couple weeks ago and flipping it around to show Tim. He leaned in close, studying the image like it had killed his cat or something, with vengeance, and great offence. Kon understood the feeling.

"He won’t let anyone forget it. Fucking Luther."

Tim grimaced in an agreeable sort of way, so Kon assumed he felt the same.

“How did you manage to miss them?”

Kon asked, curiously, feeling a bit incredulous.

Tim waved his hand towards his car. 

“I didn’t really go through town to get here.” He paused. “Does everyone really know about this then?”

Kon scoffed.

“Oh yeah.”

Kon gestured to his discarded picket sign. It said “FUCK OFF LUTHER” in bold black hand-drawn typography with silver glitter around the edges of the letters. He was pretty proud of it. Cassie thought it was dumb, but she’d also laughed when he’d shown it off so he was counting it as a win.

"That's what I was up here for actually, I was staging a protest over Luther putting his grubby fingers into the town. Thought you were part of his team here to start the demolition."

Tim raised an eyebrow, looking faintly ill at the idea that he would ever work for Luther. That might be Kon projecting a bit though. Or maybe not, Luther was objectively very terrible.

"Ah yes. The infamous protest of one."

Kon felt his face get red.

"I uh. Tried to invite people. But no one else really came I guess."

He slumped a little, turning his focus on the widening patch of clear dirt at his feet.

"Yeah, ah. I guess no one was really interested enough about.."

He gestured vaguely around with the hand his phone was in, trying to encompass the entirety of their surroundings, feeling somewhat defeated.

"All this.” Kon shrugged uncomfortably. He wasn't sure what he had expected really. “It's whatever."

It really really wasn’t. But he didn’t think saying that would make much of a difference at this point.

He looked back at Tim and gave his best ‘what can you do’ shrug. He didn’t think he managed to do a terribly good job.

Tim had tilted his head curiously. His eyes were unnaturally bright, which made Kon hold back a wince. He had wanted to make a difference, do something good, tell Lex Luther where exactly he could stick it. Not make some younger (probably) guy have a fucking emotional break. 

That seems like the sort of thing that is almost unilaterally considered 'not' good.

Tim was still staring at him. It was getting a bit uncomfortable to be honest. Kon shifted under the weight of his eyes. 

“What?”

He asked, a bit defensive. Maybe a lot defensive.

Tim barely reacted. He was frowning.

Kon considered waving his hands in the guy’s face to see if he noticed. Maybe that was a bit extreme for step one though?

“Are you telling me…” Tim started slowly. Like he was thinking his words over carefully. Or like he was really mad. Kon tended to evoke that sort of reaction in people, but he wasn’t sure what he had done this time. “That you’re trying to uncover the illegal and potentially dangerous plot of a corrupt businessman in order to save your hometown by yourself because no one else believes you and you refuse to give up?” 

Kon thought about it, and yeah it seemed like that about summed things up. Ish. Sounded especially shitty when you put it that way though.

“My friend Cassie is sorta helping too?”

He offered, not sure why he was trying to spin this in a more positive light. 

“But she’s got soccer tryouts today, she couldn’t make it.”

Tim breathed deeply.

“Okay.”

He took another breath. And then another after that.

“Okay. Okay okay okay okay okay. Okay. We can do this. Okay.”

Kon didn’t think Tim was really talking to him at this point. He’d stopped staring at Kon and was sorta just staring vaguely at a spot 10 feet to the left of him. Kon wasn’t sure if he should interrupt.

“Okay.” 

Tim broke off his train of ‘Okay’s and sat up a bit. 

“Alright.” 

It was something different at least. 

“I’ve got it. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to go find a slightly higher than average hill or something to try to find some actual cell phone signal and make some calls to see what information I can get and figure out if my real estate agent knows anything about this or the survey team. You go home and get together whatever information you already have and we’ll meet up..” Tim paused to squint up at the sun. It was getting kind of late in the afternoon, but the sun was still pretty high in the sky because summer. “Let’s say tomorrow morning, around nine? We can look at what we have then and go from there.”

He paused.

“Oh!” Kon nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden exclamation. “ And if you can I need you to show me around the farm tomorrow too.”

"What?"

This was sort of a multi-purpose ‘what’, meant to cover the entirety of what just came out of Tim’s mouth and also maybe his entire day at this point. Because… What?

Tim didn’t seem to understand this.

“If Luther has a particular interest in this place it has to be for a reason, it makes sense to try to figure out what’s drawing his attention.”

He said this reasonably, like it was an actual explanation. Kon appreciated the effort, if not the execution. 

“No, what are you talking about?”

Tim stopped short. Metaphorically. Literally, they were both still sitting on the edge of the road.

“We’re gonna ‘save the farm’.”

Kon could hear the air quotes around the phrase, and the unspoken ‘obviously’ that Tim conveyed with his face afterwards.

“Just like that?”

"Honestly I was already halfway convinced that I needed to do something the first time you mentioned Luther's name."

Tim smiled at him, sharp-edged in a way that was startling to see in a guy whose eyes were still a little red from crying. It was intimidating, but like. In a good way.

"I got involved in the selling process later than was ideal and it seems like some details were neglected when they caught me up to speed. "

Kon spluttered. Tim sounded like he had swallowed a business textbook. This wasn’t the only thing that was bothering him right now. But it was definitely on the list. Another thing on that list was:

“What did you have me explain all of that for then?

“I mostly just wanted to hear what you were going to say.” Tim paused. “But also I actually didn’t know anything.”

Tim gave him an impressed look. He was acting like what he was saying was normal in any sense of the word. Like this wasn’t the most batshit thing Kon had ever heard. He kept talking. 

"Though I guess if we’re being accurate the phrase ‘save the farm’ isn’t correct because I still own it, it’s in the process of being sold which isn’t great but is better than it having already been sold. I suppose I should have said that we’re going to figure out the farm? Or that we’re going to safeguard it? Hmm… those don’t sound right either. We’re going to fuck up Luther’s day? That’s accurate- if grossly oversimplified."

“Yeah okay, but you still haven’t given an actual reason why you’re suddenly all gung ho for this.”

Tim made a face. And then he made another one. Finally his mouth shaped an ‘o’ of understanding.

“Ah. That makes sense. I must seem pretty suspicious, showing up out of nowhere and all.”

That was not at all what Kon had been thinking about. Mostly. It was kind of a good point. Or it would have been if Tim didn’t look so dang sad when he said it. Well he didn’t look sad per say, his face just sort of slowly went entirely blank as he was talking in a way that was terrible and unnatural to watch. 

“No! Well.. sorta. But not really. I just don’t get why you want to help? Didn’t you say you had to go home?”

“I do. But I can’t yet.” Tim looked briefly pained. Kon regretted bringing it up. “I’m not staying long. But as long as I’m here I might as well help. It looks like this is my mess.”

That still wasn’t really a complete answer, but Kon found himself nodding. Tim seemed earnest. And he wasn’t really sure if he was in a position to be choosy about help anyway.

“Okay.”

Tim brightened.

“Yeah?”

Kon continued nodding, this time with more confidence.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s do this.”

Tim’s smile was brilliant and a bit devious.

“Excellent!”

Kon was like, mostly sure he had a good feeling about this.

* * *

  
  


Message From: Cassie

4:47

Kon, I’m just finishing up. Omw soon.

5:12

Okay. I’m nearly to the farm. Whats the sitch? Did we get a good turn out?

5:17

False alarm. 

no yelling at Luther goons today

5:19

WHAT

Incoming Phone Call From: Cassie

*Ring Ri-*

“Hi Cassie." 

“What did you mean false alarm?”

"How were tryouts?"

"Kon, what happened?"

“Um. I’m not sure how to explain.”

“Okay. I’m sleeping over. It’s too late to drive all the way back to the far side of town.”

“It’s Five-thir-”

“Its. Too. Late.”

“Oh. Yeah okay, alright.”

“And I want you to tell me precisely what happened _in detail_ when you get here.”

“That might be kinda hard.” 

Kon wasn’t really sure if he could understand what just happened, let alone explain it. 

“But I’ll try.”

* * *

It was dark

It was dark it was dark again it had been so so long he couldn’t even remember the last time it had been dark it was beautiful and the lights in the dark kept spinning but he thought that might be more him than the lights themselves and he. Couldn’t. Move.

Again.

Again again it was happening again and he didn’t know why and he didn’t know where he was and everything was so still but he needed to find someone but he didn’t know how or who and all his thoughts were... were running together like water but he couldn’t. Move. 

The world kept spinning around him.

Probably.


	2. A New Day Dawning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are changing quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooof. I did not expect for it to be this long before I posted this chapter. I explain a bit why in the end notes. Not as a defense or anything, I just like talking. 
> 
> It's a bit of a beefy chapter which i'm proud of, I've been working on writing more long form and counting all the things in my drafts right now I think this story is the longest thing i've ever written. Please enjoy!

It had taken Tim longer than he had expected to find somewhere his phone worked. He had ended up on the near edge of the town the farm was loosely connected to, a place called Smallville. It was the sort of thing he was pretty sure was considered ‘kitsch’ back at h..Gotham.

He stood outside his car just beyond the shadow of the town, if you could call it that. There were streetlights that had just started to flicker on in defiance of the quickly dimming evening light above, but they hardly made a dent. Their impact was firefly-like in presence, enough to announce itself, but the streetlights didn’t reach far beyond that. Especially in comparison to the brilliant colors streaking the sky as the sun set beneath the low rolling hills.

He didn’t think evenings were supposed to be… bright.

Tim tilted his head so it blocked the low sunlight enough so he could see his phone screen well enough to scroll through his contacts. It made a sort of halo ringing the car’s front mirror. It didn’t improve the view much. After several hours of driving and a stalled engine, Tim thought it wouldn’t be overdramatic to say that he hated this car deeply, on a personal level.

It didn’t take long for him to find the name in his contacts. Tim pressed the call button and hoped to all that was orbital that he had a strong enough signal for the call to go through.

“Walborough Real Estate, Walborough speaking.”

Tim pumped his arm in a silent yes.

“Amanda!”

He oozed false cheer, the way politicians and overexerted retail employees learn to.

“Hello Timothy.”

Amanda Walborough was as no-nonsense as they come with a streak of dry wit a mile wide. Tim liked them for it on some level. He definitely held a lot of respect for them, but that wasn’t exactly the same thing. They always talked to him directly, not like they were looking over his head for a babysitter. It was something he appreciated not having to fight to achieve for once. It didn’t necessarily make them pleasant to talk to though. Especially when he wanted a favor.

“What did you require?”

He’s pretty sure that they don’t particularly like him. But they’re good at what they do and doesn’t let their dislike show generally, they’re too much of a professional for that, so he can’t say he minds too much

“I’m glad I caught you, late night?”

It was a safe bet. As far as he could tell most nights were late nights for Amanda. There were other ways he could check what he needed to know if he hadn’t managed to get a hold of them but it wouldn’t have been as expedient. For more than a few reasons.

“I wanted to check in about the evaluation for the old farm that was supposed to happen today. I had some questions?”

Amanda hummed, and paused for a moment. The sound of faint keyboard tapping came through his phone.

“Yes, it looks like everything’s in order. The team did a full inventory this afternoon and we should be able to proceed with the selling process soon. I have a buyer or two already lined up, nothing official yet of course but the prospects look good. What did you have questions about?”

Tim froze. That. No? No?? He scrunched his face up in thought.

“What time did you say the evaluation happened?”

“I didn’t.” There was a deliberate pause before they continued. “It was from 1 to 4 this afternoon.”

That made absolutely no sense. At all. On any level. Tim started pacing in thought. He made sure to keep his circle small so that he didn’t wander out of service range. There was no way Amanda had the patience to wait through 

“Could.. Could you send me the report?”

“It hasn’t been filed yet. We only have preliminaries currently. I can have the full report for you sometime in the next week.”

“Alright.” He tried to sound casual. “Can you remind me who we hired for this?”

Amanda’s voice went cool. 

“Mr. Drake-Wayne, I assure you I picked the evaluation team myself, if you have any concerns about their qualifications I would appreciate you telling me directly.”

Tim was definitely not going to do that. No way in hell.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to insult you or your abilities Mx. Walborough.”

Amanda sniffed a little but seemed at least partially appeased by the formalities.

“I’ve been looking for ways to keep myself occupied, what with the you know..”

Tim waved his unoccupied arm about as he spoke, making his words deliberately leading and feeling vaguely guilty for it.

“Ah. Of course.”

They still sounded stiff, perhaps even stiffer than they had before. Tim thought it was probably for different reasons now though.

“The team we hired was a local group under the name Hayes, exceedingly well reviewed. I hadn’t used them before but I have a colleague who had. I hope you find that helpful.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Tim rubbed the bridge between his eyes, aggravated, confused, and oh so incredibly curious as to what the actual hell was going on. He filed the information in his mind to come back to when he had more to go on. It was something to follow up on, he was sure. He just didn’t know what yet. 

“And Timothy,”

Amanda sounded lighter, almost hesitant for a bare moment.

“Yes?”

“Next time you need something to occupy your attention, I would ask that you direct your search somewhere that doesn’t intersect with my office.”

Tim winced.

“Will do Amanda.”

“Very well.”

That was where the conversation ended. Tim tilted his head upwards as he hung up himself, the dial tone having done volumes to continue to convey Amanda’s annoyance at him.

The stars were starting to come out. Little pinpricks on the pinky-purple sky. He hadn’t expected that. He breathed slowly as he watched the way the stars brightened. It was an absurd sight to a native Gothamite. Part of him was whispering that the sky wasn’t supposed to do that, but mostly it was soothing. It made him feel small. 

He took his phone out again, this time to see what options were available for hotel reservations. The website starts loading slowly, the bar on the top inched across the screen by infinitesimal amounts. A bug flies into the screen. Before the page finished loading a thought occurred to him in this strange sort of emptiness. He quickly switched to his home page and opened his texts. 

Once open he paused, uncertain. His finger tapped against the volume keys. Tap tap tap tap. Tim unconsciously pressed the thumb of his other hand against his lips, thoughtful. A wave of hesitation froze him there, just beyond the barely present shadow of Smallville, a shitty car at his back and mosquitos probably trying to burrow beneath his jacket. Telling someone made his decision feel more concrete in a way he was still wavering over. Was he really going to..? This wasn’t running away he told himself. Really. It felt like it though. Until it didn’t.

That didn’t make sense, he knew it didn’t, but there was a tornado roiling under his skin. It’s moving too fast for him to tell what it is and it’s too strong for him to ignore and he’s sorta afraid that if he stops moving towards something it’ll tear him apart. Maybe he is running. Just a bit. Why does that matter though? 

And when you think about it, really, how could he not? 

He tapped a name towards the top of his messages list.

Tim

9:42

Something came up, I’m not going to be back for awhile.

9:49

I’m fine.

9:50

Don’t worry.

* * *

Kon fidgeted with the steering wheel as they made their way down the road to Draper farm.

“You never told me how the tryouts went.”

They had been too busy the night before for her to say much about it. First with Kon explaining to Cassie all that had happened. Then with Cassie freaking out and Kon freaking out some more. Then with arguing about whether or not they should actually do what Tim said. By the time that they’d come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t hurt to at least hear him out and gathered up all the evidence they had on hand (not much) it had been too late for them to do anything but pull out a bed for Cassie and fall immediately asleep.

She hadn’t really wanted to talk about it in the first place, so there was that too. 

Cassie kept looking out the window. Pretended she hadn’t heard. Or thinking of a way to answer. She wasn’t sure. Either way she held her silence.

Kon didn’t press. She was grateful even though it made her stomach twist. It had been weird between them for a while now. Since he’d gotten back. They weren’t fighting. She didn’t know how to explain it. It was just like they didn’t mesh as well as they had when they were younger. Things grated when they shouldn’t, when they hadn’t before, and neither of them knew what to do about it. They knew each other inside out and everything was normal until they didn’t and they weren’t. 

She was left floundering at times like these. They both were.

Kon definitely didn’t know how to even start addressing it. So he hadn’t. Cassie hadn’t either. It worked. It left her feeling wrongfooted, clumsy, and so certain she had said the wrong thing more often than not, but it worked.

They pulled up to the Draper farm, the white car, presumably belonging to ‘Tim’, parked in front of the old farm house. The other boy was here early then. Cassie checked her phone. It was only 8:37.

Cassie slid out of the passenger’s seat quickly, squinting around the farm suspiciously. There was no sign of this Tim, which felt odd. If he was here already why wouldn’t he be here to greet them? What else could he be up to?

“What do you know about this guy anyway?”

Kon shrugged, also looking around. 

“He owns the place? He wants to help?”

“That’s it?”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Maybe.” Cassie scrunched her nose. “Not really though.”

The whole situation stunk of skeeviness in her opinion. She didn’t  _ like  _ being on this farm. She didn’t trust someone just randomly swooping in and claiming they could solve all of Kon’s (their? She was kinda unsure on how much claim she had/wanted on the issue- another thing she and Kon hadn’t been talking about) problems just like that. 

“Why was he even here?”

That was weird too. From what she knew the Draper farm had been on the market for ages. Why would some person claiming to own it suddenly show up now? And there was a thought, how did they know he actually owned it? Did Kon see a deed or whatever they use to prove ownership? She found it pretty unlikely.

“He said something about jail I think, but i’m pretty sure he was joking.” 

Cassie pivoted to stare at Conner for a moment. She took a deep breath. She considered dragging her best friend back into the car, to the Kent farm which still had a fairly sizable portion of breakfast left. It was packed away in the fridge of course, they weren’t rude enough to leave Ma and Pa a mess to clean up, but if they left now it would probably still be warm. She could do it too, Kon was fairly strong but she definitely had him beat. Yep, that sounded like a much better plan than exploring the abandoned farm looking for a strange boy with possible criminal connections. 

Kon hadn’t noticed her staring, his head on a swivel searching for ‘Tim’ still, bright-eyed and bouncing on the tips of his toes a bit, like that would help him get a better view, like he wasn’t already 5’ 11’’ to Cassie’s 5’ 10’’. She wavered. He’d go along with her if she insisted, she knew that. Or she used to. But now even if he did go he’d be upset and sulk or something for who knows how long. Kon got kinda weird whenever things involved Luther. If he was set on doing this, Cassie could back him up. Plus she was pretty sure there was some rope in the back of his truck if they really needed to subdue whoever else was here. 

It was probably ‘Tim’ but you could never be too careful. They still hadn’t actually set eyes on him. 

Cassie’s head tilted up and she caught sight of a second floor window flapping slightly on its hinge. A small chain kept it from swinging open all the way but it was clearly dislodged from its frame.

She nudged Kon, and pointed out the window.

“Did he go in without us?”

Kon frowned in thought as he observed the way the window tilted.

“Maybe?”

“Why would he go in before us? Is there something he doesn’t want us to see?”

Kon was eying her now. 

“It is his house, I don’t think we get to decide when and how he uses it.”

He pointed out reasonably. Cassie felt her face heat.

“Allegedly.”

“Dude.”

She was sure her face was completely red now, but she wasn’t letting this go.

“I’m just saying, I don’t trust this. None of this adds up.”

“You’ve said.”

They had already gone over all of this last night, Kon was no more convinced then than he was now. Kon sighed a little, clearly starting to get frustrated and doing his best to pretend he wasn’t. That made her feel a little guilty. 

“Look, how about we just go ask him what he’s up to? That way you can meet him and judge for yourself if he intends to sully my virtue and steal me away in the night or whatever you think he’s planning. Does that work?”

Kon softened the bite in his words with a teasing smile. The effect of it was dampened a bit by the fact that she couldn’t tell if it was fake or not, but that wasn’t really his fault. Or not wholly his fault in any case. 

She snorted after a moment, unwilling to be the one to make things weird this time if she could help it.

“Fine. But don’t blame me if you wake up in a secret lab or naked under a bridge or something.”

Kon shuddered at that. 

“Don’t lie, you’d come save me even if i did manage to get abducted by evil scientists.” 

She decided to ignore the strain his smile had at the edges and hummed thoughtfully. Kon pouted. She relented, which felt weird. Usually she’d drag teasing him out for a while longer. She ignored that too and started towards the farmhouse’s front door as she replied.

“Of course. Most scientists are wimps, I’d have you out in no time at all.”

Kon laughed. 

“My hero!”

“You bet your ass I am.”

Kon caught up to her quickly, nudging her out of the way before she could try the door handle she was reaching for and quickly rapping on the beat-up wood door. Cassie considered just barging in anyway, but decided to follow his lead for now.

“Where would he even find a bridge though?”

She turned to look at Kon, nonplussed.

“What?”

He shrugged leadingly. A shit eating grin had replaced the one from earlier. 

“You said I could end up under a bridge or something. But I don’t even know what the closest bridge is, let alone how to get there, and I’m pretty sure he’s not local so he’ll have even less of a clue than I do. I was just wondering how your theoretical under-the-bridge dumping would work. Logistically speaking.”

She barked out a laugh.

“You dumbass, they’d build a bridge right here in town, solely to dump you under. You’re not worth the energy to transport past the county line.”

The effect of her words was probably somewhat ruined by the fact that her breath was still hitched from laughing as she spoke. 

Kon opened his mouth, probably to ask how building a whole bridge was less effort than going out and finding one, when the door yawned open in tandem with the figure yawning behind it.

Cassie’s first impression of Tim was that he was delightfully small and pretty grumpy looking. 

“I don’t think you have to worry about being stolen away in the night.”

She declared. She doubted Tim could carry 50 pounds, let alone someone of Kon’s size. He eyed her for a moment, blinking slowly like he wasn’t registering what she was saying. Or maybe her presence.

“Dude! Did you sleep here?”

Tim squinted muzzily at him too. His hair was going in at least 11 different directions.

“Wern’t any ho-” he broke his sentence off to make room for another large yawn. Cassie caught a glimpse of his tonsils. Gross. “-otel rooms open.”

“Did you like.. Just curl up on the floor or?”

Cassie couldn’t tell if Tim was glaring or adjusting to the light from the still open door. Either way it was pretty funny to watch.

“There was a mattress.”

Tim half-heartedly gestured to the staircase behind him.

Kon wrinkled his nose. It was the same way he’d wrinkled it at one of the practice scrimmages he had come to, the one when she’d dropped her dirty soccer socks in his lap. Kon had some strong hygiene opinions, he always insisted that ‘the texture of scent  _ lingers _ ’ or that he could ‘feel the dirt’. Pfft. She didn’t get it. But she tried to not like.. wear perfumes or whatever, just in case they bothered him.

“Just a mattress?”

Tim made a considering face and tilted his head. His body drifted slightly with it. It was honestly pretty funny.

“There were also sheets. Or like. A lot of moth holes with some bits of sheet in between them occasionally.”

Kon made a mildly distressed noise. Cassie scrunched up her face, looking up the staircase. Contemplative.

“I didn’t know we even had any hotels?”

She asked, half rhetorical.

“You don’t.” Tim answered shortly, making his way toward what looked like a kitchen from here. “That’s why there weren’t any open rooms.”

She snorted. Fair enough.

Despite herself she was starting to like the guy. She had come in prepared to be suspicious and hostile because apparently Kon wasn’t willing to hold his own on that front but it was kinda hard to keep glaring when this guy was 5’5” tops and looked like he’d just gone several rounds in a tumble dryer. She got where Kon was coming from. She sorta wanted to ruffle his hair and let Ma Kent feed him until he burst.

They followed him into the kitchen, where he was holding one of the doors open and staring blankly at the dusty shelf full of cracked cups and plastic plates.

He stood there for a couple seconds, just blinking slowly.

“Right.”

Tim said quietly, presumably to himself. Or to the Mickey Mouse on the coffee cup in front of him.

Without any elaboration he turned and closed the door he was holding in one mostly-smooth motion so he was facing them again, his eyes overly wide as he did his best to rub the sleep out of them.

“Sorry, you said you had the file?”

Kon held up one of his non-journalism club folders, which meant it was approximately very old and also very ridiculous. This one had two puppies snuggling on the front. He loved the thing.

“Like I said, we don’t really have a ton, but i found a couple of Luther’s flyers and some information we found on his website about the project, it was really vague. Probably because he hadn’t actually bought the property yet, but it could be because y’know.”

Kon gestured with one hand around him, an all-encompassing gesture that didn’t really specify what they were supposed to know. Tim was nodding as he was flipping through the papers in the folder, so it seemed likely that he did in fact, know.

Good for them. Cassie didn’t.

“What?”

Kon made a face like he had just realized why you don’t stick tinfoil in the microwave.

“We think there might be something weird about the farm and that’s why Luther wants it.”

Cassie blinked, processing. Alright. Sure, made as much sense as anything.

“Okay, tell me more. But first.” She wheeled on Tim who was still going through the folder. “Why did you do that thing with the cupboards?”

It wasn’t really important but she was burning with curiosity and had a good authoritative voice. It had been odd, and in the past day of odd things she had to start somewhere didn’t she?

Tim looked vaguely embarrassed. She could tell because he turned bright red and fumbled the page he was looking at. 

“I forgot there wouldn’t be food in them.”

He mumbled, straightening the pages. 

Cassie nodded, she supposed that made sense.

“You didn’t have breakfast I’m guessing?”

Tim shook his head reluctantly.

A Plan, capital P, was forming in her mind.

“No, but I have some energy bars in my car and..”

Ha. Yeah no.

Cassie turned to Kon, in this they were in perfect sync. They exchanged a look, chock full of meaning. She turned back to Tim who looked terribly confused and rather concerned.

She still didn’t trust him, not that easily, but that didn’t mean she was gonna let this go on unaddressed.

“Get your shoes, we’re feeding you.”

Tim looked at the folder in his hand, seeming almost offended.. No. Betrayed by the idea. 

Tough shit. 

“But..”

“Nope! Foiling Luther can wait till we have full stomachs.”

Kon nodded, trying to subtly herd him towards the door. It wasn’t very subtle, but it was working.

“Yeah dude, I’d have invited you to spend the night at the farm if I had known you weren’t staying someplace. The least we can do is feed you.”

They were almost to the door when Tim stopped again.

“I’m still in my pajamas.”

It was a weak excuse; Tim knew it too from the tone of his voice. Cassie rolled her eyes.

“So?”

She was pretty sure she was still in her pajamas too technically. It was no big deal as far as she could tell. He was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a soft looking shirt. You could like, barely tell they were pajamas. It was fine.

Kon seemed to disagree, because he looked at Tim consideringly and gestured back to the front door.

“Get changed, I’ll go grab the truck.”

Tim, apparently having accepted his fate, nodded and darted up the stairs to where she assumed he had his clothes. Kon left too, keys swinging between his fingers. This left Cassie standing in the hall in front of the door, a bit unsure of what she should do with herself.

It seemed rude to snoop around in someone else’s house. But as far as she could tell it was barely Tim’s house anyway so she’s not sure if it would actually count. Cassie tilted her head around to get a better look up and down the hall. She was indescribably curious. As far as she knew no one had been in the old farm for years, not since it had been abandoned. She was pretty sure middle schoolers still told scary stories about the place and dared each other to touch the doorknob. The empty house that chased it’s owners away because it was so scary and full of monsters.

All incredibly dumb of course.

Cassie was suddenly and a bit uncomfortably aware of the fact that she was currently standing alone in said house. She shuffled a few steps so she was at a better angle for reaching the door if she had to book it. Just in case.

She considered checking the team roster page on the school website but decided to hold off for the sake of her data plan and her own sanity. The positions weren’t even supposed to come out for another couple weeks anyway. It was horrifyingly anxiety inducing having to wait. She’d really rather just know now please and thank you with a cherry on top.

She rocked on her heels in the empty corridor. A pile of letters on the end table next to the door caught her eye. They were interesting, a nearly even mix of official looking and handwritten that she hadn’t really seen before. They were old too, faded along the edges with sun stains drawing soft geometric patterns over them all making it look like one great mass of a single whole, not many different individual things. 

She didn’t touch them, half afraid they’d collapse into dust if she did and somewhat concerned over if the legality of reading other people’s mail changes depending on how old the mail is.

A quiet thump thump thump down the stairs breaks her train of thought. She looks up to see Tim almost at the bottom of the staircase, in new clothes that look nice despite being rather wrinkled around the edges. He’s fidgeting with his jacket sleeves. 

“You ready to go?” 

Tim smiled uncertainly, looking more nauseous than anything. Kon honked from outside the front door.

This was going to go great, Cassie could tell. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it!
> 
> It was a Tim and Cassie chapter! I'm having a lot of fun trying to get the voices for the different characters. 
> 
> I was really hoping to get to bart this chapter but it was already getting so long that i had to cut where it ended. I'm hoping i get to bart next chapter, chapter 4 at latest. I do not know when they are coming though. They are in progress currently, I just haven't been in a super big writing mood. Had a lot happening. This chapter has actually been ready besides some edits for over a week but life's been a lot. I kinda decided to take a gap year from college??? The day before I was supposed to go back to campus??? Like even I know that's an insane life choice but here we are. I've mostly been dealing with that. I'm hoping when i've got that figured out I'll be in more of a writing mood. Also I've been having to help my dad with construction projects. Which is a lot. I am neither strong nor enduring. I'm so tired dudes.
> 
> ANYWAY. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! I really like how this chapter turned out, hope you did too!
> 
> Have A Great Day!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments or kudos if you like. Come talk to me on tumblr I'm @lopsided nebula and am always happy to talk/receive attention from others! If you haven't already check out @acidulication's art and all they have to say about their farm au which is completely different from mine and also so very good!
> 
> I cannot guarantee a regular update schedule. Sorry. It took me almost a month to have this chapter done. Though I'm writing semi-non-linearly so like 2/3 of chapter 2 is already done and various scenes throughout so the next chapter might be done quicker. 
> 
> I'm having a lot of fun with this story already though I can promise you that.
> 
> Have a good day!


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